In Servitude to the Dark || Tom Riddle

𝙋𝙖𝙙𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙮

May 15, 1994

They decided to wait till after dark to find Sirius Black. Even with Aster's magical marker, it was going to be hard enough finding the man who had eluded both the Aurors and dementors. Aster went back and gave her excuses to her friends, saying Professor Snape recruited her to help gather potions ingredients as part of her Healing lessons. Meanwhile, Snape delivered the finished Wolfsbane potion to Lupin and grabbed a couple of other items they may need, including a pensive.

They knew Sirius was still somewhere close to Hogwarts. After all, the dementors, who could sense the general location of Sirius Black's soul still hovered around. Aster called all four of her elemental sprites as her modified 'point me' charm took them unsurprisingly into the Forbidden Forest.

"What are you going to do if Black doesn't comply with your demands?" Snape asked as they walked, both guided by Hestia's light and their own Lumos charms. They still had a couple of hours till nightfall, but beneath the thick trees of the forest, light was becoming scarce.

Aster really hoped her nominal godfather would cooperate because she didn't want the responsibility of Sirius' freedom on her conscience. "We'll have to make him understand," she said firmly. "But even if he doesn't, and he's innocent, I don't think I can live with myself if I let Black get Kissed."

Severus nodded in understanding. He may have hated Black with a passion, but even Severus could unbend enough to feel a tinge of sympathy towards a man who was wrongly imprisoned for nearly all of his adult life. Though he was privately reviewing his memory charms. If Black was going to be the stubborn and idiot Gryffindor he was in their school years, then he wasn't going to have any memories of Aster or his involvement to report back to Dumbledore.

They walked deep enough to pass through Hogwarts' wards and still, Aster's wand kept pointing them deeper. Suddenly, Aster stumbled and tripped and would've fallen if Snape hadn't caught her. "Must you be so loud," Snape hissed, the anticipation of their hunt making him snappy. "You have the grace of troll."

"It's not my fault that rock came out of nowhere," she argued.

Snape gave her an incredulous look as if he couldn't believe she actually said that. Aster flushed but pointed back where the rock still was. "I swear it came up just to trip me," she swore and went back to investigate the pyramidal rock, no larger than a fist. Seeing something carved into it, Aster brushed aside the stray leaves and twigs, unearthing the rest of the carving. "Hey, it's got a snake engraved into it," she announced excitedly.

Hearing this, Snape went to investigate. "Don't touch it," he warned, knowing better than Aster how well-guarded Slytherin items were.

The younger witch rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot," she snarked, smirking when she heard Snape mutter something that sounded suspiciously like, 'could've fooled me.' "So what do you think it is?" To Aster, it seemed to vaguely remind her of the tiny carving in the 2nd-floor girl's bathroom that leads to the Chamber of Secrets. "I wonder..." And before Snape or Terra could stop her, she hissed the command, §Open§.

Suddenly the ground beneath them rumbled, and Terra began pulling at Aster's robe urgently.

"What did you just do!?!" Snape growled, pulling out his wand.

Aster looked back guiltily but before she could answer, the ground just vanished right out from under her. She screamed as she fell, but luckily a relatively soft bed of decomposing leaves and roots cushioned the short drop. It was still painful though.

"Aster!"

"I'm okay!" she called upwards, seeing Snape's alarmed face peering into the hole. Then she turned around and extended her Lumos light to illuminate the hole. "It looks like an abandoned tunnel," she said and checked Unicorn horn wand, which was still pointing towards Sirius Black. "I think Black has been hiding in these tunnels."